Find aBusiness Opportunity

Mom's Finds Niche In Baby Care

Two metro Atlanta moms have figured out how to turn cranky babies into a thriving business.

Laura Hunter and Jennifer Walker never thought of themselves as entrepreneurs until about five years ago, after a little advice from country crooner Kenny Rogers. Today they are published authors, Web site operators and sought-after consultants in a big niche market.

The two moms –- they have eight kids between them –- run Moms on Call LLC, which offers real-world advice and counseling to newly minted parents.

“We partner with people on their parenting adventure, and it is an adventure,” said 37-year-old Hunter, who lives in Kennesaw. “We saw a need, and we set out to meet that need.”

Their consultation business has exploded –- it grew 600 percent in three years. Their book, “Guide to Basic Baby Care,” has sold more than 20,000 copies and been translated into three languages. They recently started online courses in child care on their Web site that take parents from infancy through age 5.

In the process, they have begun what amounts to a small-scale revolution in the child-care business, reinventing the swaddling blanket and reducing reams of child-raising advice into a simple set of how-to instructions. Stunningly, all of their success so far is due to word-of-mouth recommendations. They think they know why.

“The key that was missing was the reality of the day-to-day care,” said Walker, 39, who lives in Woodstock. “The swaddling blankets were too small, nobody talked about a regular, day-to-day routine. Nobody had a real plan to get a baby to sleep through the night.”